In early 2017, we surveyed facility managers and posed the question: What keeps you up at night?

Their answer?

Skyrocketing energy costs,

Out of control operational spend; and

Lack of control over the facility during unoccupied times.

After finding this out, we knew right away that we needed to come up with a solution. Luckily, since many team members at BGIS are engineers, (both of the energy, mechanical and electrical variety) or building technicians, and thanks to our partnerships with leading technology and IoT providers, we knew we were up to tackling this challenge. Our next steps were to conduct research, choose a technology partner, develop a true ‘BGIS’ solution and then pilot our solution with one of our clients!

So...what did we do exactly?

As a leading, turnkey facility management services provider with deep technical roots, BGIS understands what it takes for a building to operate at peak performance. This knowledge, coupled with the feedback we received from facility managers, helped us land on a solution that addressed energy management and operational spend – any time of the day or night. Our solution? We, in collaboration with our partners, developed a web-enabled controls program that allows for real-time monitoring and control (day or night) of any building’s HVAC and lighting systems. The best part? We were able to figure out how to do this remotely across multiple sites in North America!

Installed technologies included:

a micro building automation system (embedded within the thermostat),

zone temperature sensors,

electric baseboard controllers,

static pressure sensors,

IAQ sensors,

lighting controls, and

a collection of current transducers.

Pssst! A “current transducer” is a device that converts energy from one form to another.

Here’s where it gets very technical – don’t worry; it’s what BGIS does best!

All of the building data is collected through the technologies listed above and transmitted in small data bundles via a secured cellular network and consolidated to a web-based portal at BGIS’s Remote Command Center (RCC). Dedicated analysts located at the BGIS RCC utilize the web-portal to view the buildings’ energy metering and control data points and receive automated alerts, notifications, and recommended actions to improve efficiency. With continuous monitoring and remote control and triage capabilities, BGIS is able to take a proactive approach to building optimization and facilities maintenance and promptly dispatch qualified resources when clients experience issues at their facilities – all without any clicks, drags, phone calls or an overabundance of time, risk and resources.

Time to lock, load…and pilot this program.

Without real-time monitoring capabilities and a means to impact change, we knew that the real estate industry would potentially continue to operate in a market with continued raising costs. We wanted to test our new product with a client with multiple locations, to PROVE that building optimization and energy savings were possible.

A pilot project was undertaken for a select group of retail banking sites managed by BGIS on behalf of a customer with thousands of locations across North America. BGIS leveraged this solution to achieve an average of 20 per cent in energy cost savings across the properties involved in the project, with some sites reporting savings as high as 35 per cent.

The pilot project delivered value in a matter of days. With these tools at the client’s disposal, BGIS helped to dramatically improve efficiency and effectively reduce costs at the site level by:

Optimizing equipment shutdown procedures;

Eliminating simultaneous baseboard heating and HVAC cooling;

Aligning operational schedules with holidays and weekends; and

Using remote triage and control capabilities to reduce service calls and time spent on maintenance.

In the first few months of deployment, this approach identified an average of about 20 per cent in annualized energy cost savings across the multi-site pilot program.

In addition to energy cost savings, the remote control capabilities can help reduce operations and maintenance costs, while the added visibility will extend the useful life of critical equipment installed in the buildings.

“You simply cannot manage what isn’t measured. With this solution, known as ‘Smart Retail Controls’, we now have complete visibility to the health, performance and productivity of the building assets and employees,” said Anthony Cho, SVP Client Services and Professional Services, BGIS.

This technology is ideal for portfolios that span multiple regions, with large teams and non-uniform HVAC and lighting control systems. This system provides a means to not only view and modify performance data remotely, but also consolidate existing building automation systems platforms into a common portal/access point.